The Happening (15)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo.

Rarely in the history of British cinema audiences has there been a film that has provoked such an audible, unified expression of contempt for a film, as occurred the moment the end credits rolled on director of ‘Signs’ and ‘The Sixth Sense’ M. Night Shyamalan’s sixth film.

With an already chequered history of hit and miss films (most of which are widely open to debate at that), it really should come as no surprise that his latest offering should be poor. However, it seems that this time he has reached deep down inside himself and succeeded in surpassing poor, awful and even dire and produced a travesty. This truly is a disaster movie.

This then is a lesson in what happens when a mediocre film director is allowed to also write and produce his creations, leaving no one but the financiers with the authority to say “NO”, and they can’t have been aware of what he was doing until it was too late. Possibly Shyamalan has grown tired of his career and chosen to fall on his own sword.

The tragedy is that the concept is an interesting one and really the only thing that keeps you watching, in the hope that a great revelation will happen in the form of a plot twist, for which the director is well known. Unfortunately, all that happens is the end of the film and a feeling of outrage and futility towards everyone involved.

The acting is wooden and, at times, bewildering. There really are no note worthy performances, although this can partly be explained by the excruciatingly bad script which at times made me wonder if he had in fact let his children write it.

The plot is often confusing and irritating as the film jumps from horrific, to comedy, to B-movie without any real substance. Mostly though the comedy doesn’t come from the content of the script but from the terrible delivery of it. Witness Mark Wahlberg, at the climax of a supposedly nerve wracking scene, at the sound of distant gunfire, utter the completely terror free words “oh no”.

So is there a single redeeming feature to be found? Well, to be honest, the film does start with promise. The unknown assailant, the terrifying incidents and the rising panic keep you guessing for a while. However, it’s not for long and the dreary character development and ridiculous premise deflate you all too quickly and the director’s attempt at Hitchcock style suspense fails miserably leaving no pay off for the scenes designed to shock.

But if all this doesn’t convince you to avoid The Happening at all cost, to summarise what your money and 90 minutes of your life will be wasted on;

Marky Mark runs away from wind.

By Tom Smith